Inspiring Simplicity. Weekend Reads.

Written byjoshua becker ·

There’s more to life than buying stuff.

There are many wonderful people pursuing and promoting simplicity. Fortunately, some of them are gifted in communication and choose to encourage and inspire us with their words. I enjoy reading their unique perspective. I’m sure you will too.

So fix yourself a nice warm cup of coffee or tea on this beautiful weekend. Find a quiet moment. And enjoy some encouraging words about finding more simplicity in your life today.

The Power of Buying Less by Buying Better | The Atlantic by Elizabeth Cline. According to a recent survey commissioned by the British charity Barnardo’s, a majority of women’s garments are worn a mere seven times before being pushed to the back of the closet or tossed into the garbage.

Comments

I to am fed up of buying poor quality clothes, its uneconomical all round, they don,t wash and iron well and look exactly what you paid for within weeks, i also don,t want to have to shop again to replace the rubbish i bought in the first place, shops such as m&s in England were expensive but better quality, but they,re getting as bad as the cheap shops, i buy less and wear things more often to get my money,s worth, fed up of donating to charity shops, there are far more charity shops where i live now than ever, they try to keep on a par with other shops, but there full of mis- shapened clothes and its just saddens me to think i could have had a shop for myself with all my foolish purchases, i think we need to get a life, surely there has to be more to life than shopping, have a great weekend guys, thanks for the reads etc they always inspire me
with love Jacqueline xoxox

I especially enjoying the article on debt written by a young person. Unfortunately, no one knows what life will throw at you as you age. I’m approaching my 72nd birthday and have spent the past 10 years paying off accumulated debt due to life events such as a natural disaster that wiped me out of everything, including my job. Living an ultra frugal lifestyle while still enjoying life has been a challenge to say the least. But, it is very satisfying to realize that somehow I have managed to pay off many thousands of dollars in debt on a very small retirement income. My plan was to be debt free at 73 and it may become a reality.

Loving the idea of quality over quantity. Alas, at 62 I find myself wishing I’d bought that cashmere when I was 25! Guess it can be passed on to my daughters eventually. That said, the “care” of quality items is greater than for less expensive items. The $$ seem to balance out. Funny, but I’ve never had difficulty purchasing quality shoes finding it easy to depreciate them over a “lifetime”. Have just never thought about that same depreciation for clothing. This is where a capsule wardrobe or a “uniform” come in, right? Plus, since we live in rural, rural America, the internet has made it much easier to purchase higher quality clothing for a lower investment. Anyway, great thoughts. Your articles are always an inspiration.

Simplicity to me this week meant fixing my old car instead of shopping for a different one. Thanking God I have good decent insurance that covered it all.
Planning an awesome wedding with focus on us as a couple and our family, not how much we can spend on trappings most couples think are what a wedding should be….

Good for you! We had a private ceremony on the beach – the two of us, our minister, and our minister’s wife – and had a small reception a few months later (heavy apps, beer & wine, and the cake was a wedding gift from a baker friend). Not only were the costs much more manageable – I wore my dress twice! – but Lordy, so was the stress.

I look forward to this email every weekend; thank you for a little bit of sanity in the world!

The article about millennials claiming their stuff was very timely! I’m currently working my way through my stuff and know the ~8 boxes of my kids’ school papers are waiting for me. My kids are now 24, 22 and 12 and at least for the older two, I kept every single paper they brought home, with the intent of keeping a representation of each school year. There’s a lot more to it than that; my childhood stuff being withheld by my controlling father, etc. Will my kids even want to look at it?

Simplifying, for me, means having a clear mind. I have a feeling the school papers will be in the recycle bin by the end of the day, and this will be a lesson learned. And a deep breath that ends in a smile.

That’s exactly why I still use old stuffs, old laptop, same old clothes for 40 years, wear worn out shoes to places. My phone is still has a dial pad. Live in a compact apartment shared with 5 others. Maybe I come from an older generation who learns how to save. Do not act rich and overspent kids. Very inspiring articles joshua. I have a dream I am still trying hard to pursuit, I know I can do it. Sorry English not my first language.

Semi, you said it well! I’ll be 65 in May, and now with less energy, and more of a longing to do things, I want to have furniture that’s easy to clean, walls & floors that have space, less and less stuff. Our house is paid off, and now we have fixing up to do. Longing for a simple, good looking, east to care for environment, so when people come to visit I’m not worried about the dust bunnies on the floor because I didn’t have time to clean due to “stuff”. I quit smoking many years ago, and only drank when I was much younger, and remember the freedom I felt doing that. Now, minimalism is my freedom goal!!

I would take being stress free and financially secure with fewer things over being buried in debt with a bunch of “cool stuff” any day of the week. I really will never understand the appeal of consumerism.

Phew, I needed this today. The shopping-jones is hitting bad, and I needed this re-focus.

I did make a fairly sizeable purchase a few weeks ago. Our cheap vacuum was 5 years old, was never spectacular, and just can not keep up with 2 dogs. The new Shark (I comparison-shopped) does a much, much better job and the old vacuum is going on Craigslist.

Many thanks for the Weekend articles…helps me re-focus on the 2 days that I most want to go buy stuff! :)

We’ve applied the “quality over quantity” rule in our food choices as well…the result? We actually eat less junk…are more creative when cooking…simplified our meal choices…got healthy…and I lost 100 lbs/hubby lost 50!!!

And even though we had to buy new clothes, we had a better perspective on what we actually needed…so liberating :)